Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She’s been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox, and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have, FabFitFun, and any box that features natural beauty products!

All views in this review are the opinion of the author. My Subscription Addiction will never accept payment in exchange for a review, but will accept a box at no cost to provide honest opinions on the box. This post may contain affiliate/referral links. Read the complete My Subscription Addiction disclosure.

Go to sephora website and to your account, go to online orders and the one for this month for Play, click that and it will have an item number, these go by the last 3 digits. It’s not the number on the order number, they are different. Hope that helps.

Whew! Thank goodness I’m not getting this box! The last thing I need is yet another Smashbox primer sample or another black eyeliner. I’m getting #609, so my fingers crossed that it will be an awesome box!

Same here. I just set up a new one for my sister hoping that we would have a greater variety together – some overlap makes sense but we have vastly different skin, hair, and coloring so I assumed we would have some variations and could swap back and forth. Unfortunately, we both ended up with the exact same box this month. I don’t hate it…but it’s just not very exiting.

What a disappointment!! This is my box…black eyeliner, same smashbox primer I’ve received a dozen times at least, makeup remover…SO.NOT.EXCITING!! I don’t normally complain but this box is pathetic. Of all the things Sephora sells they continue to have dismal sample boxes lately!

This is my box, I am happy about the two skin care items but I am not excited for anything else. How many of the same primer can I get and i always think receiving stuff from their in house brand is just cheap of them— i personally subscribe to try out fun luxury brands–not their brand. I don’t wear eyeliner so that is a miss for me as well.

Oh well, you win some you lose some, its only $10 and I was really happy the last two months–but this month is for sure a dud for me.

I know the smashbox primer is total overkill to many people… I, on the other hand, can not get enough of it!! With the stash I have I could probably make about 10-15 full size bottles of it, lol. Although I do enjoy receiving fresh and new items from brands I have yet to discover, getting a product that’s a staple in my beauty routine is always a win for me! With that said, keep them comin’ 🙂 I will take all unwanted primers hehehe.

This is the box I’m receiving, and normally spoilers for my box number come out last, so I’m really excited to see this! I’m really loving all the spoilers this month and will use most of them (unlike last month unfortunately). I have so many primers, so I’ll probably just put it up for swap, but other than that, I’m really happy about the products this month. 🙂

Exactly what I was thinking about always receiving my spoiler last! 🙂 I am excited about the eye makeup remover, I know I like Daisy by Marc Jacobs, can never have enough primer & I like this one, & the water drench seems perfect for the heat coming. I don’t wear black eyeliner so that sucks, going to my sister or gift drawer. I have not tried the ExfoliKate but everyone seems to hate it. I plan to use it on my feet if it’s as rough as everyone says.

I got a foil sample of the ExfoliKate before, and I didn’t think it was too rough for my skin and mine can be a little sensitive. I was super careful to read through the instructions though. Their original directions are to massage onto skin for 30 seconds and let it sit for up to 2 minutes, BUT they note if you have sensitive skin to leave on less than a minute or use ExfoliKate Gentle. Hope this helps! And if you don’t like it, I’m sure people will want to swap for it!

Exfolikate is Kate Somerville’s signature product – a lot of people love it – including me! 🙂 I’m actually surprised to see so many people here expressing dislike for it. It’s not rough – it’s an enzymatic exfoliator. Totally different from scrubs. I can’t imagine it would do *anything* for your feet. Read the directions and give it a shot! 🙂

Exactly what I said! I actually love their green color correct primer and the pore diminishing primer. I have gotten enough samples of this primer to make 2 full size tubes but I never use it, it’s my absolute least favorite primer. I’m hoping it’s not in box 583!

Glad this isn’t mine. I’m 591. If I don’t like mine, I’ll probably cancel. I don’t use enough of the products to justify the sub. I’ll just save my $10.67 a month and spend it on something I use all the time.

I agree with every point you have made! Overall I think this sub is worth it since the cost counts toward VIB status, and I am usually able to make it to the store to use my Play card.
However, I have been less than thrilled with the last few boxes, especially when they send tiny in-house brand samples. Allowing sample choice and letting me redeem my Play card online would make me so happy.

I agree! I loved my Target Natural box this month and think a Sephora one could be great. And if I could use points online, I’d definitely use them every month! I have better impulse control when shopping in real life since I actually need to look at all the things I’m buying…

I bet they have some sort of study showing that people spend more on impulse purchases if they come into the store, so they’re trying to draw you in with the 50 bonus points. I just don’t have time to get to a store most months, so mine always go to waste. But I also find I have a hard time using my points. Selection isn’t the greatest most of the time when I make a purchase. The good stuff goes fast. I think I have over 1000 points just sitting in my account right now.

Me too…my self control is pretty poor around midnight/1 am and I often go online to Ulta, Sephora, Ebay, and many other sites and shop. In-store, which doesn’t happen often because there is no Sephora within an hour of me, I don’t buy as much because A) I feel pressured and rushed, B) the selection is never as large and easy to find as it is online, and C) in-store I keep to a budget by using cash almost always. Online, I can’t do that so I tend to be looser. I too wish those points could be applied online. I would be MUCH more likely to shop more often, and they would be more likely to get me to buy things that I might otherwise buy at Ulta, where my rewards points can be used to buy anything I want instead of just pre-assigned rewards.

I am giving you the hands up emoji for this. I am so tired of eyeliner and SMASHBOX PHOTO PRIMER. STOP TRYING TO MAKE THIS PRIMER HAPPEN. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this. I totally agree that if Sephora sends their own brand, they need to make it full size. I am stoked about the Exfolikate, though. I love that product. But I can’t stand eyeliner. And yes, let us pick a sample!

I’ve never understood the full size wish. I get that sometimes people use the retail price/cost to justify that it should be more than a sample. But what if it’s something you end up hating? Or already dislike? Then you have a full size item that’s going to waste or you force yourself to use it.

To me, the beauty of a sample service is getting to try things without commitment or excessive waste. It’s also a business with a goal to get you to buy the product. If these businesses constantly provide full sizes, they’re not going to sell much. We’d all pretty much just use what they get from subscriptions instead of buying full sizes of the samples we receive. (A lot of subscription addicts already do that imagine if non addicts did too!) Subscriptions would go out of business.

Samples should be enough to make sure it work or doesn’t work for you. Smaller than that is no good but the full-size bandwagon doesn’t make sense to me.

I think we have very different ideas of what customers should receive.

– “Sometimes people use the retail price/cost to justify that it should be more than a sample” – well, of course we do. That’s how it works – I expect to get something fair for my money. If I’m getting full-sized products from similarly priced boxes, it’s not unfair for me to expect a $10 eye makeup remover to be a deluxe or full-size sample.

– “What if it’s something you end up hating… then you have a full size item that’s going to waste or you force yourself to use it” – what I don’t get is just throwing stuff away (except tiny foil packets) when you could donate it or give it to a friend. I hate the sparkly pink lipstick I tried from last month, but I have nieces who might enjoy it. Most makeup and skincare items can be passed on. This is just a strange argument imo, because plenty of people toss half their box every month.

– “It’s also a business with a goal to get you to buy the product. If these businesses constantly provide full sizes, they’re not going to sell much” – maybe if these were free samples. But we are paying for them. They are already making money with these boxes! I think the creators of the box share your perspective, which is probably why I’m continually disappointed. I’m already paying for a positive experience, not an ad from Sephora…

– “Samples should be enough to make sure it work or doesn’t work for you. Smaller than that is no good but the full-size bandwagon doesn’t make sense to me” – except no one is asking for full sizes of expensive brands. People are complaining about unreasonably tiny samples. And that’s where the “full sized Sephora products” complaint came from – being tired of super small mascara that you can barely try.

Completely agreed! Before subs, I spent probably $30 on new makeup a year. Now I spend $200+…obviously that’s not all passed back to the brands, but still, it’s a good reminder that we all subscribe for different reasons! This makeup newbie is still going to go back and buy full size of products she likes…but first, they have to convince me that I like them! And for Sephora brand products, they have that ability and get to reap 100% of the benefit.

And THAT is why I want full size/deluxe. Personally, my expectation is that I should get 5+ uses out of each product, if I’m paying for the samples. I don’t need to be using it forever! But for me, for makeup, that’s one time to test, one or two to make sure I’ve applied it right, and two more to try it in the real world and make sure that I love it IRL/maybe experiment and see if I can make it work better for me. For skincare, I think it’s even more reasonable–if a product needs regular use for two weeks to see an effect, why give us just one use worth?

To me, the point of subscribing is to be able to try surprise new things. But I want to be able to properly try, ya know? The assumption, to me, is that since everything is a surprise we’ll like 2-3 things per box. I keep finding that, for Sephora, it’s more like MAYBEEEE one, since 2-3 are things I’m on the fence about, and probably 3-4 are tiny enough that I can’t be sure if I like them enough to buy them. On the other hand, if they gave us bigger samples, like ipsy does, and we hate them off the bat…we can just give them away and then they’ve advertised to TWO people!

Yes! I subscribe to Play because I’m 30+ minutes from a pretty terrible JC Penney Sephora. It feels dirty, the staff is rude, and I’d rather be able to look up products as I browse anyway, so by making things in-store only (and never giving me a reason to WANT to be in that store, like a Play party), they’re definitely losing out on any extra business from me. I subscribed so I wouldn’t have to go to the store, haha!

If you changed it before the 7th then you should be ok. After and you may have missed April but I am not 100% sure. I changed banks and had to update my card but I did it on the 3rd and my box is listed under my pending orders.

This happened to me when I had a CC expire and had to get a new one. You miss out on the box that month. They won’t ship it to you even after you put in your new CC info. You have to wait until next month!

I think this is the first box I’ve been disappointed with. I’m getting the 575 and the only thing I’m excited for is the exfoliKate because I’ve used it before and liked it, but refuse to pay so much for it.

Other than that, my Boxycharm last month had the same primer in it (which I’m meh about) and I guess the eyeliner I’ll use eventually. I’m a little bummed out, but at least I’m not getting another hot pink lip item that I’ll never use haha.

This is my box and I’m okay with it. Out of the 4 skincare spoilers they showed, the PTR was the only one I hadn’t tried, so I am looking forward to that. The smashbox primer is a crazy duplicate as it seems to be everywhere, but I actually really like it so it will continue to hold me off from having to buy full size. The eye makeup remover and perfume are meh. Kate Sommerville is a great brand and I know tons of people love Exfolikate but it was just okay for me. I have so many scrubs though because they take forever to go through.

Me too. It seems like there are a lot of different boxes. I’ve seen: 591, 583, 575, 417, 609, and 629 talked about so far. 591 will probably be the last shipped and spoilers will come after the box arrives. LOL (never fails for me!)

I didn’t realize the theme of this box was “leftover samples from 2015.” How boring. I’ve been swimming in samples of this smash box primer for well over a year. Even if I wanted to buy it (I don’t) it will still be at least another year before I run out of sample sizes, and now this. Come on. Also, daisy? That scent is a full decade old. Don’t even get me started on a plain black eyeliner by MUFE and the same sample of their eye makeup remover that I got in a favorites set back in 2015. There are so many exciting releases happening at Sephora, which to me is the point of this subscription. Every month it gets more and more clear that unfortunately Sephora is just using this program to get rid of all their old 100 pt sample stock.

What’s the theme of this box? Super old an unexciting products? Daisy? This smash box primer? A plain black eyeliner by MUFE? Ugh, ipsy sends me plenty of misses but at least they’re not giving me an entire bag of left over samples from 2 years ago..

Really?! Smashbox primer??!! They couldn’t think of anything else within their thousands of other products?! Cancelled so fast and NOT resubscribing ever!!! So over all of these repeat brands and products! What a disappointment this sub has been! 😠

I’m getting 583 too so I’m hoping this means the Kate Somerville won’t be in the 583 variation. I did want the PTR as well so since there are two of those spoilers in this box I am hoping their will be two in ours and that will be one of them.

This happened to me last year too! About one month ago, I finally was able to finish using the ~35 sample packets I received from Ulta purchases over the past year. In the very near future, I will begin to start using the 10-15 mini tubes of the same primer. Fortunately, I like the primer, so I always welcome receiving more. I haven’t had to buy a full-size yet!

I’m not crazy about this one. I thought we were just getting one of the skincare items? I’ll be fine with two, but it’s a little annoying to get boxes with many items from the same category (guess I’m still annoyed at the box of highlighters lol).

Otherwise, the box is kind of dull. I have multiple samples of Daisy and the Smashbox primer, and more black eyeliner than I could ever use. And eye makeup remover is possibly the most boring item they could send. The items aren’t terrible, though. The high end skincare samples definitely redeem it, assuming they are not incredibly tiny.

No worries, my friend offered to trade me her box this month since she owns all the products already! She also has horses so I can trade my Horse Box. 🙂 Just excited that Sephora Play finally tempted me to give it a go, as May is my birthday month!

This is the box I’ll be getting and I’m disappointed. I’ve already tried the Daisy perfume, Sephora eye makeup remover, and Smashbox Photo Finish primer; all good products but not super exciting. I’ll be glad to try the Exfolikate and Dr. Jart+ moisturizer. I’ve tried lots of highly rated eyeliners and every single one ends up smuding or bleeding down under my eyes. I’ll be impressed if this one doesn’t.

Have you tried eyelid primer or applying setting powder at the end? I couldn’t wear eye makeup at all until I used primer. But I still get some movement that I think must be from the shape of my eyes or something. If I’m going to be out late, I just carry q tips in my bag so I can swipe off any eye makeup that migrates under my eye. It’s that or I’d even have to skip mascara. 🙁

Praying to the subscription box gods that box 609 does not have Kate Somerville or Smashbox Primer in it as I have been getting samples of those products for the past year. Please, please, please have something new and exciting in our box lol

I was on the wait list for months for sephora. Finally got off last month. I’m not overly impressed. I will probably drop this and birchbox, I’ll always keep Ispy, boxycharm, and beautyfix. I just joined Luxor tonight. The DH is gonna want to kill me, lol!

My box, I’m so so about it. I’m excited for the peter Thomas Roth!!! And the smashbox, I love getting primer samples (will always use and never need to buy a full sized one) and smashbox is a good one. Not really excited for the eyeliner because I only use liquid eyeliner, and I already have a lot of gel and non gel black pencils I don’t use. I don’t really care about the exfolikate, I already have an exfoliator I love and don’t need more of anytime soon, and this one has really mixed reviews. I will try it tho because I recently got a deluxe sample of the eradikate cleanser, and I’m really liking it. I guess I’m happy to try it, but wish I would’ve gotten the fresh mask but I’m happy to get 2 from that spoiler and not just one! And the perfume I already know I like.

Not my favorite box, but at least its practical, everything (besides probably the eyeliner) will be used. A good box just kinda on the boring side.

Forgot about the Sephora makeup remover, another practical but boring item. I’ve tried the wipes version of this product, and liked it, so I know this will get used. Just probably not for awhile because I prefer makeup remover wipes to just the liquid, and have a lot of makeup remover liquid samples already.

I’m a little meh, though. I’m happy to see the PTR since I haven’t tried it yet and am interested. I like Exfolikate and the MUFE liner, but I already have plenty of both. Kinda bored by the Sephora eye makeup remover and SUPER bored by the SB primer. It’s such an incredibly common sample and it doesn’t work for me.

The peter Thomas Roth is the only thing I would want from this box. Don’t like the makeup remover or exfolikate. Don’t use black eyeliner. Have so many samples of the SB primer that I will never run out. Hopefully my boxes will have some things I’ll use. I see much more “common” than “step up” here. I have 591 & 609.

What a bummer! This is my first Play box and I was so excited, but the only decent product here looks like the eyeliner. I bought a full-size of the smashbox primer before, and its useless. And the Exfolikate smells so rancid it made me throw up the one time I tried to use it, it is truly disgusting. This is really disappointing. But it is $10 and I guess you get what you pay for. 🙁

I’m pretty sensitive to scents on my face so that’s not what I want to hear! I really do like skincare, but I prefer no fragrance or something very mild. Hair products are usually somewhat fragranced (much more pleasantly) and that’s plenty for my head….

Love it!! I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed my Sephora selections. A few times I’ve been a bit jealous after reading the spoilers, then I received my bag and love my items. Sephora is hands down the best of the low end priced subs in my opinion.